It’s any fashionista’s dream to own a Louis Vuitton or Chanel bag, just watch the episode of the Hills and watch Lauren Conrad’s reaction to receiving her very own Chanel lambskin tote. As a fashion lover myself, I always die a little inside when I see someone in public with an Hermes bag, and remember that at this point in my life I would have to choose between paying for a year of college tuition or buying a classic Hermes. Although Louis and Chanel aren’t college tuition priced they still are nothing close to affordable. And a lot of other people realize this as well, hence the start of knockoff products. Although some faux bags look pretty darn close to the original, if you train yourself to look closely you’ll be able to spot a fake from a mile away.

The most painfully obvious trait of a fake is when the logo is not the correct shape and letter or when the design is upside down. There’s no possible way that a company that charges hundreds of dollars for a bag would produce something that sloppily. If the logo and design look real then the next way to tell if it’s a fake is to check the leather. Some faux producers will use real leather which makes it seem a little more high end. However, in order to reduce the price most fakes are made out of artificial leather which from far away may look real but upon touch is not as soft as real leather. If the leather is real, it may require some digging but the inside tag is always a tell-tale sign of whether or not the bag is real. Most high-end brands will put an authenticity code on the inside of the bag, this way if it is taken into a retailer they can check the code to one hundred percent verify if the bag is real or not. And make sure you are never fooled by the price, if the price seems cheap it’s because the quality of the bag is cheap.

So whether or not you want to wait until you can afford a real designer bag or are okay with having a quality knockoff, make sure you do your research, especially if you are buying online. And whatever kind of purse you buy, make sure you stay classy with it in hand.